Archaeological and Historical National Park of the Villa of La Isabela, Puerto Plata

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Description

The history of the village of La Isabela, founded by Christopher Columbus, and its archaeological and historical park with its beautiful surrounding bay, the cliffs, two rivers and a plain endowed with great greenery make it one of the most important sites in. the oriental end of the cost of the county of Puerto Plata, to the north of the island.
The port endowed with an incomparable beauty is dominated by a very high mountain, flat in its summit and surrounded of rocks, for which Colon considered admirable place to found the European city of the- New World, in the riverbanks of the outlet of the river Bajabonico.
They raised a church, government's houses, a warehouse, a tower and a hostelry and they distributed parcel of long and they tracer the streets and squared. The most important colonial enclosures in the place are: the Admiral's House, the Church and the Alhóndiga.
The Admiral's House: it is the most important building in The Isabela and the one of best state of conversation. It was the only house that Columbus had in America; a construction of military character whose original walls at the moment conserve a height of 60 centimeters. They maintain an excellent state, as well as the threshold of the main door and some remains of the pavement.
The Church: only stone foundations are conserved. During excavations of 1985 pañete pieces of masonry were, rescued. The building that harbored the first Christian church in the New World, from the architectural point of view, was very simple, it had characteristic rectangular plants, directorial axis to the West and external mentions of 6 meters in store walls recovered in mud, lime and sand.
The Alhóndiga: the Alhóndiga, Greek word that means everything together, was kind of a warehouse of tools, foods or products of transportable value to Spain.
These areas were occupied by some families, those which jurisdiction relocated in The Castle, the Isabela. At the moment the lands of the area are property of the state of the Dominican Republic.
History and Development
History. The village of Isabela was the, first urban center of European style achieved in the New World. This city was founded by the Admiral Christopher Columbus, in its second trip in 1494. A walled city of, medieval type, was built with massive public constructions of stone , and palm cabins for domestic- residents
Development: The colony didn't prosper, due, partly, to Columbus's bad administration complicated by the resistance of indians, the lack of -gold in the region and the failure of the crops. It was systematically abandoned in the 1497 and the colonists and the resources were dedicated to Santo Domingo and the Conception of The Vega. The area has received considerable archaeological and historical attention from the end of the XIX century until today. On the other hand the value and importance of the Isabela, place of the transcendent encounter of two worlds, weighs in all America and the world.